Water Memory

Aubrey Sentro, the heroine of this initially slow-moving thriller from Pyne (Fifty Mice), once did covert ops in the military, but she now does similar work for a private security firm in Bethesda, Md. Suffering from short-term memory loss from too many blows to the head, Sentro is in need of a vacation, and books a place on a cargo ship headed to South America along with a few other passengers. The pace picks up when pirates storm the ship, and Sentro uses her military training to fight back. Left for dead, she wakes to find the ship listing in a harbor and the crew and other passengers gone. On land, an unlikely trio offers help in her effort to rescue the missing passengers and crew: a 10-year-old boy with a vendetta against the pirate leader, a heroin-addicted American doctor, and the doctor’s pregnant teenage girlfriend. Fortunately, Sentro’s memory issues amount to senior moments and have little impact on her ability to battle bad guys. The complexity of her character makes up in part for the stock action. Fans of the action flicks will enjoy this. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Assoc. (Feb.)